Compare Prices on Carnival Glory Canada & New England Cruises

Not the best if you are travelling with children

Sail Date:
July 2012

Destination:
Canada & New England

Embarkation:
Boston

I love to cruise, so I decided to take my 8 year old son on his first out of Boston.

The Pros..

-Parking and embarkation was very easy.
-Our balcony cabin was very nice. It was clean, beds were comfortable and our room steward was amazing.
-Room service always arrived when specified. We took advantage of using the cards to order breakfast the night before, so we could take our time getting ready in the morning and I could still get my coffee fix without leaving the room. Plus my son thought it would be awesome to have breakfast in bed.
-The waterslide was a lot of fun, as was the mini-golf (2 pros for kids)
-The casino was fun and they had a good choice of games. It never seemed overly crowded (but I was usually only there until about 9pm while my son was in camp)

The Mixed..

-The shows were ok. I thought they were better on Norwegian.
-Camp Carnival (6-8) was nice to have when I needed a break and my son needed some time with other More
children. The only problem was that one of the counselors was a bit harsh, which put my son (who is well-behaved) off a bit, but it seemed she was that way with all the children.

The Cons..

-The food was not good and I am not a "foodie". It seemed that the theme was quantity, not quality. Breads were usually dry and hard to swallow. Not a great variety. If your child is a picky eater, you will probably spend a lot of time getting them hotdogs from the grill.

-The pools are 4'6" deep, so if your child shorter than this and is not a strong swimmer, plan on spending the entire time in the pool with them (as there were lots of kids in the pools making it very crowded). There were never enough loungers or seats around the pools (people would get up very early and put t-shirts on the loungers and keep them for the day).

-They would shut down mini-golf, ping pong and the sports deck every day at 5pm. Unless you put your child in camp or took them to the 8:30 show, there was really nothing kid-oriented to do in the evenings, which was hard.

I would definitely say that the Glory is better for adults who are not as discriminating about their entertainment (yes a hairy chest contest). I know that there are bigger and newer ships now that have a lot more child-friendly activities, but for us, sailing out of Boston was convenient. I think it is a good cruise if you like to lounge by the pool all day and/or you have teenage children that can look after themselves for long periods of time (all the teens seemed to be having a great time), but over-all, just not a lot for little kids to do unles they spend the whole time in Camp Carnival. Less